Chapter 57: Superb momentum

Translated by: Reiji

Ayrin immediately jumped down, helping Kybaver back to the resting area. Kybaver swayed on his feet, almost close to collapse. Ayrin said to him, “How is it, you probably don't have enough strength left to fight the next match, right?”

“No matter though, just watch my performance next. I'm going to beat Rowan!”

“Who wants to watch your performance. What does your match with Rowan have to do with me.” Kybaver panted in rough breaths from the pain and scolded him like this in his mind. However, just like a war comrade, he leaned all the weight of his body against Ayrin's shoulder.

At the very least, he defeated an opponent like Dulvi!

At least he could still sit in the contestants' area and watch the selection, instead of lying on the field below, carried out on a stretcher by a squad of medical masters!

“This guy, not only is he an inborn battle master, he can even draw out and ignite abilities in others.” On the edge of the dome, Minlur couldn't resist looking at Liszt with some admiration. “You really have sharp judgment, you actually saw through his talents back at the registration already.”

“No.” Liszt shook his head. “I hadn't seen his special bloodline back then. What attracted me was merely his drive that seemingly no difficulty could stop.”

...

“Ayrin against Andrea!”

Ayrin jumped up from his seat as soon as he heard his own name.

What made everyone in the rest area speechless was, he suddenly yelled at the teacher who'd called his name, asking, “What, it's not Rowan yet?”

“There are eight people altogether in every group. Now you fought a round already, so there are four left. As long as you win this time and Rowan doesn't lose either, then you'll definitely face each other in the next fight,” the teacher answered, a smile escaping his lips despite himself when he heard that question.

“Teacher, I want to request a change in the order of the fights!”

An extremely gloomy voice rang just at this moment.

“Mm?”

This teacher blinked in surprised. He turned his head around. He saw Rowan already on the verge of exploding, looking as if he were soon about to lose his self-control and come forward to hit Ayrin. “Swap the order, but the selection...”

“The way the contestants are arranged in this selection, didn't you teachers casually set it up by drawing lots?”

Rowan watched Ayrin with a look that seemed able of killing someone. “Since it's only an internal competition in the academy, then I might as well request the teachers to arrange for us to fight first.”

“Teacher, can it be arranged?!” Ayrin immediately became excited as well. “Teacher, just set us up together first!”

This teacher said, looking a little awkwardly at the other teachers at the same time, “But... Even if I can arrange it, you will be at a little disadvantage if you first fought against him.”

“At a disadvantage? Why?” Ayrin asked.

“Because you don't have arcane particles, you purely rely on your physical strength to fight. If he were to fight another round and consume a large amount of arcane particles though, it would be very favorable for you.”

“It doesn't matter, I don't need any unfair advantage over him!” Ayrin firmly brandished his fist. “Anyway, if I fought another match I might possibly consume stamina too. Just let me go against him first.”

Rowan's face was black already. “Please teacher, I request you to set up our duel first.”

“Just let them fight first then. It's just a small group fight with four persons still left anyway.” A lazy voice drifted down from the sky above just as this teacher hesitated. “We can chalk it up to agreeing to both their requests for a duel, let's just say it's a special arrangement.”

“Liszt, he came back?” This teacher's eyes lit up. He nodded, not wasting too many words any further. “Alright, then you two fight first!”

“You're dead now!”

Rowan threw some ruthless words at Ayrin. His silhouette flashed and fell down on the selection field below, carrying with him gusts of raging winds.

“Ayrin actually challenged Rowan on his own initiative!”

“Many people in second year suffered at Rowan's hands... I really hope Ayrin can beat him.”

“Go Ayrin go!”

When Ayrin entered the field, everyone's eyes were on him despite themselves.

Originally, in everyone's cognition, there was a natural divide between arcanists and arcane masters that couldn't be bridged. But Ayrin had not only knocked down an arcane master in front of their very eyes, he even went to Divine Shield Academy and challenged an arcane master. Although no clear victor ultimately emerged therein, he at least knocked down this Divine Shield student on the ground.

Right now, in almost everyone's subconsciousness, they all thought Ayrin couldn't defeat Rowan, but at the same time they still hoped for a miracle to occur. The more conflicted their moods, the faster their hearts beat.

“Bastard, you made me to fight so desperately, you definitely have to win as well!”

In the rest area, still in so much pain patches of darkness again and again filled his vision, Kybaver also twisted his face and firmly brandished his fist at Ayrin.

...

“You can begin!”

Rowan stood there without moving an iota after the teacher serving as referee declared the start of the fight. He said to Ayrin with a cold tone that seemed to freeze into ice, “If you obediently kneel down and lick my feet, I can let you off.”

“Okay!”

Ayrin bent his waist, as if he truly were going to kneel down. But the instant he bent his waist down, his body suddenly accelerated and rolled on the ground as if it were a ball, then bounced up at an alarming speed and sent a punch flying in Rowan's direction.

“So fast!”

Rowan's body tensed. He propulsed himself to one side as if it were a conditioned reflex. He felt a burst of wind blow him by. Ayrin had already swept past where he previously stood at, standing five or six meters away behind him.

“Very insidious. It's just too bad you can't even condense arcane particles yet!”

His shred of nervousness disappeared in an instant. A thick, cold smile floated on Rowan's face thereupon.

Magenta arcane particles started to drift around his body, then become gust after gust of raging winds. In a mere instant, his body was wrapped inside the whirling tornado, sometimes disappearing and sometimes reappearing.

“Swish!”

His body suddenly disappeared inside the twister. Then, along a wind column dropping down from the air, he appeared behind Ayrin's back.

“Your speed can simply not compare...”

Rowan's voice filtered clearly through the winds. He originally wanted to say, your speed can simply not compare with the speed of an arcane skill like mine. However, these taunting words were actually cut off short right in the middle.

Because Ayrin had vanished without a trace in front of him!

Ayrin started to sprint madly!

Ayrin sprinted madly without the slightest pause, accelerating to his full speed. He dashed at full speed from beginning to end; the entire selection area filled with his afterimages!

“That's the way he thought of?” At the edge of the dome, Ciaran's faintly puckered eyebrows loosened. “Moving without the slightest interruption. This way, even if Rowan's speed is higher than his, he still has no way to hit him since he can't assess in which direction Ayrin's next step will take him.”

The scene inside the field was almost the exact same as what Ciaran described. Wrapped in wild winds, Rowan once appeared behind Ayrin's back all of a sudden, but when a wind thorn fired at Ayrin's back, Ayrin had already charged forward. The wind thorn struck empty air!

“It's useless even if you block Ayrin's way. When you block him, Ayrin's still in motion, he's always moving at full speed. Whether he strikes with arcane skills or punches, there's always a slight delay to them, so they can't hit him.”

“This little guy Ayrin, his movements far exceed ordinary people's. He's precisely trying to use this advantage of his to cope with Rowan.” Minlur's eyes were thoroughly lit up. “This guy's fighting intuition's also very strong, very smart!”

...

“It turns out you want to use this tactic. You just won't make me believe you can keep running like this!”

Rowan also immediately realized Ayrin's fighting plan. His body abruptly halted in place, but the moment he halted, a thunderous sound exploded on the side behind him. Ayrin was already charging his way.

“Swish!”

He tiptoed on his feet and flashed six or seven meters away in an instant.

But in a mere second or two, Ayrin once again circled behind his back.

A wild burst of wind rose and rolled Rowan up, sending him several dozen meters away through the air.

“When I don't move, you come and attack me, forcing me to move!”

“When I attack you, you only run away without a care for anything else!”

“No matter what though, I can gain short resting reprieves. I'm not attacking, while you waste your strength, I really want to see how long you can persevere!” Rowan looked coldly at Ayrin's flowing figure. He made up his mind not to take the initiative to attack, merely dodging instead. In his opinion, Ayrin's way of fighting had a fatal flaw, because even he himself could only persevere around fifteen minutes at most if he were to sprint at full speed without interruption like this.

As soon as Ayrin stopped, his death would be very miserable!

“Can't you think of another way! Do you only know to run recklessly nonstop like this?”

In the selection's contestants' area, Kybaver couldn't resist standing up, swaying on his feet. “Idiot! This strategy of yours, competing with explosiveness and endurance... How long can you actually persevere?”

“Change your plan!”

Many people started to shout in the stands, but what made every single one of them unable to understand was, Ayrin didn't give off the slightest indication of changing his tactics and still ran at full-speed without stopping.

“Your tank's going to be empty soon right?”

“Just a reckless guy, you still want to shout and gesticulate at me!”

Rowan pulled away constantly, dodged constantly. Almost fifteen minutes later, he almost couldn't hold in the excitement and pride rising inside him.

However. “Gulp...”

More and more gulps rang in the arena.

To to the point that in the entire stands, the sound of gulping gradually became the only sound.

Fifteen minutes, twenty minutes...

Ayrin's silhouette still didn't stop, charging full speed ahead!

“How's that possible!”

“How can he attack continuously at full speed for so long!”

“How can his momentum be strong to such a degree.”

“Does he really have Giant Food Monster blood!”

Uncontrollable exclamations rose continuously from the stands. Standing inside the selection contestants' area, Kybaver's brain once again turned blank. An incredulous feeling took ahold of his body, to the point he entirely forgot the tearing pain in his chest.

His expression became abnormally pale. Sweat flowed down the strands of his hair, drip by drip.

The excitement and complacency had long vanished from Rowan's heart.

Even if he could have short resting periods, he still was constantly consuming his arcane particles every time he used a skill. After twenty minutes, he was even a little fearful of using arcane particles. Even his stamina was soon going to be a problem, but Ayrin's full-speed sprint still went on!

More than thirty minutes had already gone by!

“I can't continue like this anymore!”

He came back to his senses at this time. If he let Ayrin continue like this, Ayrin would surely wear him down to death!

“Earth Bind!

“Hurricane Strike!”

However, after launching two arcane skills in quick succession, his body went thoroughly icy-cold.

His reserve of arcane particles was already inadequate. He simply couldn't rain arcane skills on Ayrin like a torrential storm in order to hit him. Only at this moment did he realize that, after twenty minutes, victory no longer belonged to him.

“I...”

For a moment, he didn't even know if he wanted to throw in the towel or if he felt some other emotion. He started trembling from head to toe.

A muffled bang came just at this moment of sluggishness. Ayrin's body merciless crashed into his body from behind.

Ayrin charged out forward again at full speed as soon as he crashed into his body, without the slightest pause, whereas Rowan's body was immediately sent flying away in the collision, ferociously dropping down.

A tsunami-like tide of o's and ahs ran through the stands.

Before his body even landed on the ground, Ayrin had already once again circled his way from another side, once again crashed into falling body, once again pounded his body flying in the air.

“Ah!”

A miserable shriek escaped Rowan's mouth.

“I admit defeat!”

Something crashed into his body with a bang the moment the words left his mouth, and sent him falling towards the grandstands.

“Alright! The match is over!”

The silhouette of a teacher barred the way in front of Ayrin's full-speed sprint.

Ayrin stopped. He rested his hands on his thighs, fiercely gasping for air, gasping as if his breathing had been cut off. Sweat flowed down on his face.

“Pa!”

Rowan heavily crashed in the stands.

“Rumble!”

Stillness reigned in the entire arena for one second, then the stands instantly erupted in shouts and cheers so deafening it was hard to imagine.

Almost everyone saw, in the eyes of an Ayrin who almost charged straight into the stands right now, a fire burning as if they were about to combust.

“What kind of monster is that!”

“There's actually a freshman like this in our Holy Dawn Academy!”